Port of Willapa could become home of local marijuana

Big operations could be coming to the Port of Willapa Harbor in the new marijuana industry.

In March of this year, Seattle business owner Marcus Charles announced that he had plans to start the first legal marijuana grow operation in the state and house it on Port property in Raymond.

Charles announced that he wanted to hire upwards of 50 people to work at his operation in the shell of what was an old saw mill.

Terms of that lease agreement from the Port called for $4,800 a month plus taxes. Port of Willapa Harbor Manager, Rebecca Chaffee said earlier this year that “Next to Weyerhaeuser, this would be the second largest private employer in the city of Raymond”.

The Port said that following that announcement, changes have come to those plans. Instead of operating the site at the Stan Hatfield Industrial Park solely under his property management group, a separate company has begun to lease out space at the location to other businesses including BMF Washington, Urban Paragon, New Leaf Enterprises, Patriot Meds, Rain City Medical, Inc, and Polygenix THC. The majority of these companies have been officially formed within the past 2 months.

A representative was not available for comment.

According to the Port, costs to develop the site along the Willapa River is outside their budget at this time, but a purchase agreement has been discussed.

The announcement from the Northwest Growers Association in February of this year that they would be looking at 135 acres of agriculturally zoned land in Brady have not been officially linked to any current applications. A website linked to that group has been discontinued.